Land
Public land lease
Families protest as Kampot land measuring begins
About 200 people representing 816 families who have been promised a 1,337-hectare land concession in Kampot province protested in Phnom Penh on Monday, just days after authorities began measuring off their land. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-protest-as-kampot-land-measuring-begins-93608/
Industrial ambitions face thirsty future
Cambodia’s new industrial development policy calls for more factories and special economic zones, but accomplishing this will be difficult. ...
Igor Kossov
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/15199/industrial-ambitions-face-thirsty-future/
In northeast, one company controls nearly all illegal logging: Report
A new report on illegal logging in Cambodia’s northeastern forests portrays a single company with essentially a monopoly on the illicit trade. Tek Vannara, executive director of NGO Forum, said the report could be a tool to find a solution to combat deforestation. “We ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/in-northeast-one-company-controls-nearly-all-illegal-logging-report/2934773.html
Gov’t cuts leases of 12 ELCs
The government yesterday slashed the lifespans of 12 economic land concessions (ELC) – by half in some cases – as it continued to implement a new policy capping ELC leases at 50 years. ...
Taing Vida
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/govt-cuts-leases-12-elcs
Land concessions responsible for large-scale deforestation in Cambodia
Land concessions for large-scale agricultural plantations are stripping off Cambodia’s forest cover, according to a new report by Forest Trends, a U.S.-based environmental protection group. ...
Morgan Erickson-Davis
http://news.mongabay.com/2015/08/land-concessions-responsible-for-large-scale-deforestation-in-cambodia/
Gov’t and NGOs join to settle land dispute
Environment Minister Say Sam Al and a group of NGOs on Monday agreed to cooperate to resolve a years long dispute between hundreds of families in Koh Kong province and a Chinese company they accuse of stealing their land. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-and-ngos-join-to-settle-land-dispute-92392/
Officials find luxury wood in Stung Treng city pond
Forestry officials confiscated 13 cubic meters of illegally logged timber in Stung Treng City on Saturday after discovering the wood hidden in a pond and the surrounding underbrush, an official said Sunday. ...
Saing Soenthrith
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-find-luxury-wood-in-stung-treng-city-pond-91798/
Kratie families feel effects of NGO law
Officials in Kratie province are insisting that a small group of families involved in a local land dispute register with the Interior Ministry or be “punished.” ...
Aun Chhengpor
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kratie-families-in-land-dispute-feel-effects-of-ngo-law-91796/
Adhoc: houses for families displaced by dam sub-standard
New houses built for 100 families who were pushed off of their land by the construction of the Sesan Krom II Dam have been slammed as substandard by the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (Adhoc). ...
Chea Takihiro
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/14260/adhoc--houses-for-families-displaced-by-dam-sub-standard/
World Bank urged to help Boeng Kak families
A group of local and international NGOs are urging the World Bank to include a program for helping the thousands of families evicted from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood as part of the plan to start funding new projects in Cambodia. ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/world-bank-urged-to-help-boeng-kak-families-91236/
Land grabbers back in business
Reinforcing a view that land grabbing is now a business for some rural Cambodians, several villagers who were paid Wednesday for ending their squat on a palm oil plantation reappeared 48 hours later, laying claim to different parts. ...
Ros Chanveasna and Ven Rathavong
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/13963/land-grabbers-back-in-business/
Ministry claims NGO’s land dispute numbers misleading
The Ministry of Land Management has again accused rights group Licadho of spreading false data that shows that the number of families embroiled in new or intensifying land disputes jumped threefold last year. ...
Kang Sothear
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-claims-ngos-land-dispute-numbers-misleading-90425/
After effigy burning, governor raises prospect of arrests
After about 100 villagers on Sunday burned effigies of officials involved in a land dispute in Kompong Chhnang province that has dragged on for nearly a decade, the provincial governor said the protest was “contrary to the law” and gave authorities a reason to arrest ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-effigy-burning-governor-raises-prospect-of-arrests-90429/
Protest leader flees
After exposure in the press and a brush with military police, a protest leader has fled rural Kampot for Siem Reap province. ...
Ven Rathavong
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/13887/protest-leader-flees/
Alarm over 'timber grab' from Cambodia's protected forests
The analysis, from campaign group Forest Trends, says that large corporations are using legitimate development permits to illegally clear land.Around 2,000 sq km of forests are being lost every year, they say. ...
Matt McGrath
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33702814
Boeng kak’s ‘mummy’ receives land title
The governor of Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district said Tuesday that land titles were handed to two more families from the Boeng Kak neighborhood, including that of 76-year-old land rights activist Nget Khun, known also as “Mummy.” ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kaks-mummy-receives-land-title-89849/
New political environment should focus on land disputes, advocate says
Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc, urged Cambodia’s leader to use their newfound political “culture of dialogue” to resolve the problem of chronic land disputes across the country. ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/new-political-environment-should-focus-on-land-disputes-advocate-says/2877037.html
New electronics manufacturer due at PPSEZ
Thai-listed electronics manufacturer, SVI Public Limited, will be next in line to join Cambodia’s emerging light-manufacturing industry. ...
Xueying Chen
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/new-electronics-manufacturer-due-ppsez
Land disputes down in 2015 due to ELC freeze
Although the number of land disputes across the country decreased in the first six months of the year—largely due to a freeze on the granting of economic land concessions—little has been done to resolve existing disputes, according to a report released Wednesday by rights group ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-disputes-down-in-2015-due-to-elc-freeze-89260/
Farmer arrested for fighting police officers
Police in Kratie province on Sunday arrested a farmer—accused of trying to squat on a new social land concession for poor families—after he allegedly struck the officers when they arrived to tell him and his wife to leave. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/farmer-arrested-for-fighting-police-officers-89122/
Villagers petition Cambodian lawmakers for help with land dispute cases
About 200 villagers involved in land disputes in three provinces protested Monday outside Cambodia’s parliament building in Phnom Penh, demanding that lawmakers resolve their cases and threatening not to vote for those who turn down their requests. ...
Families split on offer from Vietnamese firm
Seventy families in Ratanakkiri province have agreed to accept a 100-hectare plot of land, bringing an end to their four-year dispute with a Vietnamese rubber company, but 156 other families refused to settle, officials said Thursday. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-split-on-offer-from-vietnamese-firm-88709/
In the rush to open more rubber plantations, nobody wins
Land conversions for rubber plantations in continental South-East Asia have expanded to areas where rubber is not historically grown, posing risks to both farmers’ livelihoods and environment conservation. The study defines continental South-East Asia as comprising Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. ...
SciDevNet News Staff
http://www.scidev.net/asia-pacific/environment/news/in-the-rush-to-open-more-rubber-plantations-nobody-wins.html
Families file petition over land dispute with dry port company
Representatives for 77 families involved in a land dispute with a company that plans to build a dry port and industrial area in Kratie province petitioned the Interior Ministry and the National Assembly in Phnom Penh on Monday against a court order for them to ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-file-petition-over-land-dispute-with-dry-port-company-88166/